Wednesday, 18 January 2012

Beats And Eats - Blue Sky Archives

Those lovely folks at The Pop Cop have given me a new lease of life in the kitchen. Their recent Scottish Musicians' Cookbook was a pretty braw side show from the usual business of music. So in a slight twist on my usual fare, I've decided to do a recipe/music review (with my tounge firmly in cheek when it comes to the cooking side of things). My first attempt was at Blue Sky Archives Beef And Chorizo Chili.

To get things started I put on Blue Sky Archives' \\Purral EP to get the musical feel behind the food. The recipe called for two red onions to be roughly chopped. Incidently I'm never sure how to roughly chop, so I threw the onions about a bit before attacking them with a knife. I then had to fry some mince in olive oil. Opening track 'Dear Middle Aged Ponytail' was good for that because with it's frenzied middle it makes for a perfect rhythm to flick the pan.

As well as my onions I had to chop red chili's. I made the schoolboy error of scratching my nether yeas afterwards (yum!) and it stung. Don't do this! I then fried the onions, chili's, chorizo, cumin and smoked paprika as instructed.

Next track 'Your Stage Left, Or My Stage Left?' soundtracked me added the rest of the ingredients, chopped tomatoes, kidney beans, beef stock, and tomato puree`. Nice track to listen to whilst doing this, as like the recipe it has many ingredients complementing each other (Be warned this kind of bad comparison between food and music may be a continuing theme).

It was time to simmer and season. Salt and pepper plus some dark chocolate into the mix and leave for at least 45 minutes. So I listened to their third track 'A Mighty Handful', which in this context could be renamed A Mighty Mouthful. Some pleasing vocals from Lauren Mayberry over a punchy rhythm.

At last it was time to eat, a brief sprinkle of chopped coriander, and then slapped into some tortillas with cream cheese and guacamole.

Tasting Notes

Firstly I must say this was a very tasty dish. Packed a meaty and spicy punch. Plus my wife loved it, so kudos to me for cooking a nice dinner!

I would say it looks as if the recipe is for four (it doesn't specify) so I had to chop the measures in half. I also wasn't sure what the dark beer was for, adding to the recipe or drinking. So I poured some in the mix and drank the rest.

My last point would be regarding the dark chocolate. For me it wasn't needed, but I know a lot of chili recipes include it. It didn't spoil the dish, but didn't add anything either.

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